In New Delhi: IBM has announced an Open Collaboration Research (OCR) project with the Industrial Design Centre (IDC) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay). According to the company, the research collaboration will focus on the development of new designs for mobile device interfaces that can easily be used by people who are semi-literate or illiterate, as well as individuals who have limited or no access to information technology.
The project aims to develop simple, inexpensive mobile phone user interfaces for everyone, regardless of geography or education level. It also aims to introduce new levels of ease-of-use to mobile phone interaction via developed software technology that will be made available to the public through open source.
"IBM believes that close collaborative innovation with world-class academic institutions such as IIT Bombay, is the key to finally bridging the digital divide and putting the power of information sources and services in everyone's hands," said Dr. Manish Gupta, Director, IBM Research (India), Chief Technologist, IBM India/SA. "Mobile devices are becoming omnipresent. Together, IBM and IIT Bombay will develop smarter technologies around mobile devices that will help individuals and businesses around the world transcend many boundaries -- geographical, economic and social."
The reason behind this collaboration is quite simple. Mobile phone popularity is growing in the country but taking information and services to those that need it the most is still a difficult proposition. Both, information and services, need to be delivered in a manner that is simple to understand, easy to use and most of all -- inexpensive. The multimodal interface is hoped to offer a simpler, inexpensive option for the underprivileged to reap the benefits of information technology.
"Over the last few years, it has become clear that the next generation innovations in the ICTs will be directed towards solving the problems of developing countries like India. Many of our design students and researchers enjoy working on such problems. The collaboration between IIT Bombay and IBM gives us the opportunity to explore and apply some of the newest technologies for this purpose. It is not only mutually beneficial but also intends to address larger socio-economic challenges," said Prof. Anirudha Joshi, Associate Professor, IIT Bombay.
The new research partnership with IIT Bombay is the third such engagement in India under IBM's OCR program. In March this year, IBM announced an OCR project with the National Institute of Design (NID). It was preceded by an OCR engagement with the Indian School of Business (ISB).
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